Interview with Jesse Malin

Mark Grassick catches up with NY's answer to the Dixie Chicks. Not.

He's from New York but he's not New New Wave. His debut solo album, 'The Fine Art Of Self Destruction', was produced by his good friend Ryan Adams but he's definitely not alt-country. Jesse Malin is a man who is hard to pin down. He talks to Mark Grassick about his remarkably diverse career to date.

---

Jesse Malin first emerged out of New York in the last decade as front man of the punk band D Generation. In the last few years Malin seems to have mellowed so much that he has been supporting Ryan Adams on his solo acoustic tour which culminated in some breathtaking sold out shows in London, Manchester, Belfast and Dublin.

It can't be easy for one who is relatively unknown in these parts to play in front of a fan base as fanatical as Ryan's but it's a task Jesse is relishing. "It's been really exciting," he says enthusiastically, "because I'm going to a lot of places I've never been before. Going out and supporting someone, you never know how it's gonna be, if you're going to get hit with tomatoes and bottles. But the crowds have been really warm and really great and they've laughed at my jokes. We've just got a really good reception and we've been selling a lot of records. It's been full audiences when I've come on and I've been really lucky to get such good responses at all the shows, opening up for Ryan.

Jesse and Ryan have been close friends for some time, a friendship that was one of the few good things, along with the 'Heartbreaker' album, to come out of Ryan's tragic love affair with New York. The two worked together for the first time on Jesse's stunning debut The Fine Art of Self Destruction. With both having reputations for heavy drinking and a slightly hedonistic lifestyle, you could be forgiven for assuming that the ensuing tour was a recipe for disaster. "We've been having a lot of laughs", he says with a smile, "He (Ryan) is a really warm hearted and sharing person. We've been sneaking into hotels, if they had a banquet going on, and we've drank their liquor, danced with their brides, thrown bottles and broken stuff. He called up pretending he was the front desk with an accent and told me I had to evacuate my room. A lot of high jinx but it's been cool. It's also been productive too. We're good for each other."

Ryan and Jesse do have a very productive relationship. The record, which Ryan produced, was finished in six days (five if you don't count the day that Ryan didn't show up) at a studio around the corner from Jesse's New York home. Was this a conscious effort to produce something as undeniably raw as 'Fine Art?' most definitely is? " Well, it was all the money we really had and it was all the time Ryan had", says Jesse, "We did it right around Christmas and New Year's and it was all recorded live in the studio just like Johnny Cash. It was me just standing in a room with my guitar and the band behind me and just singing it as it went down. While we were making it I was frustrated because we'd do one take, just warming up, and he'd say 'that's it' and I'd be like 'No man let me do it one more time' and Ryan would say 'No, that's it'. I thought it would go out and it was gonna be shit. But I realised he was really on to something. A day or two after we finished the record I realised that he really captured something, like a snapshot. That's why you hire someone because it can be really hard, as an artist, to look at yourself objectively."

The Fine Art Of Self Destruction comes across, with all its dark imagery of New York bars and subways, as the antithesis of all the propaganda we've been seeing since 9/11 while still being thoroughly grounded in Jesse's home town. This is something he remains proud of. "New York is a back drop for where I grew up. It's definitely one of the characters on the record. It's the kind of city where you walk out your door and songs happen. You bump into people and characters and it's a mix of so many different cultures. A lot of great stuff came out of New York, films like Midnight Cowboy, Taxi Driver and Strangers in Paradise and bands like The Ramones and Simon & Garfunkel, who kinda seem to come together on my record. I think other people have been able to come to New York and understand the dark romance, the Sinatra noir thing, as well. People like Shane McGowan, The Clash and The Rolling Stones were able to understand that dark urban romance and that's something I've always been drawn to. I mean, Fairytale of New York is my favourite Christmas song and it was written by a drunk Irishman."

But now that he's out of New York and travelling around Europe does he find his subject matter and influences changing? "Yeah, totally", he replies, "I write a lot on the road because I think writing is something you should do when you feel like you're an outsider. If you're in your little fishpond and you know everyone you're starring in your movie but it's good to be on the outside watching people. Even in New York I like to go to weird neighbourhoods, sit in a bar and write on napkins and listen to the way people speak. I like being on the outside. I like walking around a town where no one knows me or being away from home and sitting in a vacant hotel or on a bus or train, looking out the window. You can reflect a lot and it's a good therapy. Everyone has their own childhood and upbringing and their own pains and stories. For me it's still an exorcism. You have to channel all the anger, angst, fear and heartbreak and I have a place to put it so I don't get on top of a tower and shoot people with a sniper rifle." The future looks bright enough to insure we won't be seeing Jesse Malin in a clock tower anytime soon.

With his album selling well and receiving excellent reviews in Europe and his winter 2002 tour with Ryan a resounding success, he has been looking forward to returning to the studio to record his follow up to 'Fine Art?'. But before all that he got back with his band to play his first European headlining shows in Dublin, London and Manchester, amongst others in early 2003. And with Jesse, it's all about the live shows. "It's a ritual", he says, getting animated, "You might meet a girl, you might even find someone for your band, you might buy something that you didn't wanna buy. Life happens and it's part of being, going to a show. These days, a lot of people, especially back home, are like 'Let me download this' or 'lets watch it on cable' or 'Lets watch the pay-per-view concert'. It's being human getting into the pit or going to a bar. It's all part of the human experience."

Jessie Malin was interviewed by Mark Grassick

'The Fine Art of Self Destruction', released on One Little Indian Records, is reviewed here.
Jesse also appears anonymously as a member of The Fingers on their debut release 'We Are F*ck You'.